It’s “too good a company. It’s amazing. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen,” Chris Burch says of the Tory Burch brand, telling Vanity Fair that he would not sell 100 percent of his shares in the company. Contributing editor Vanessa Grigoriadis writes in the December issue that, according to a source, Chris Burch has borrowed $50 million against a portion of his stock in the Tory Burch business and other assets. But, as Chris tells Grigoriadis, “I have been trying to sell my shares for over a year now and want nothing more than to move on from this arrangement and focus on my new brands like C. Wonder.” In early October, he sued his ex-wife Tory for breach of contract and interference with the sale of his shares of the company; he now seeks compensatory damages and relief, including the removal of Tory and four directors from the board.

Barclays Capital was hired last year to conduct a sale of a minority interest in the company, including all or a portion of Chris’s shares. A source tells Grigoriadis that Chris Burch was starting to burn cash and needed liquidity to fund his many ideas and investments and his enormous, stylish offices in the Flatiron District. According to sources, Chris Burch wants the Tory Burch company to have an I.P.O., but Tory doesn’t want to right now, Grigoriadis reports. “The most important thing for me is that this business brings in other partners who are smart and drive the business to the place in history that it should be as a great global brand,” Chris Burch says. “What I want and what Tory wants have to come together. I will walk away from the business after the sale, but it’s really important to me that this business be brought to extraordinarily talented people who can help [her management team] get it to the next level.”

Chris Burch enumerates his contributions to Tory Burch L.L.C.: “The capital for that business was all mine, whatever anyone says, so it’s not us, or whatever,” he says of his $2 million initial investment. (A representative from the company counters that the start-up funds were joint.) “When it came to sourcing and product development and accounting and business finance and capital raising—all that I had to do,” he says. In addition, his representative maintains that Chris was involved in negotiating store leases, pricing, Web-site design and operation, and identifying factories to make the products. “In any business, one plus one equals a hundred. [Tory Burch] never could have existed without me, and it never could have existed without Tory,” Chris says. “It was a combination of my experience and Tory’s vision. That’s the truth.” A representative from Tory Burch says that Chris never had a day-to-day role in running the company, other than raising initial capital, interviewing some employees, and sourcing furniture in the early years.

As Grigoriadis reports, some believe that there’s another reason behind his desire to hold on to some shares. “Chris wants to stay involved in Tory’s life, because that’s who he is,” says an industry veteran. “He sees this as [having] power over her. He’s mad as hell that she’s as successful and powerful as she is. It’s time for him to sell his shares and get out of her fucking life.” Says Chris, “Tory is the mother of my children. I want to see her happy and successful.”

A business associate says that Tory and her employees “cringe” when they see him. “He is said to pop into their orbit, even showing up at corporate gatherings and saying crazy stuff, like calling himself C.E.O. of the company. But C.E.O. is Tory’s title,” Grigoriadis writes. A representative for Chris responds, “At times, Chris has voiced serious concerns about the direction of the company he once co-chaired. Chris provided that feedback with only the best intentions for the company.” Grigoriadis reports that Chris is said to be prone to outbursts at board meetings, and according to some familiar with the situation even allegedly calling Tory the mere “face of the brand.” (Chris disputes this assertion.)

Chris Burch claims that in 2011 he showed Tory designs for a variety of C. Wonder items, including handbags, apparel, shoes, and homeware, but a representative from Tory Burch says he showed her only general housewares at that time. Today, Chris sees no similarities between C. Wonder and Tory Burch, including the logo. “I don’t see any correlation,” he says. “I have said in various other comments that the interiors and products are quite different.” He adds, “C. Wonder is an experience . . . Tory Burch is an upscale women’s-wear destination.” Sources tell Grigoriadis that Tory wasn’t the only one upset—Chris also had to deal with the Tory Burch board, of which he was co-chair at the time. “He’s bullying Tory,” an industry veteran says. “To launch a company underneath her is disgusting, and to stay on the board and do it—my God! If you’re going to be a pig, at least go off the board.”

Meanwhile, Chris says that “[i]f you look at my very first brand, Eagle’s Eye, my aesthetic has always been classic and preppy. There are elements of this aesthetic in both brands but the brands, as concepts and in their offerings, are very different.”

“It’s not just credit. Everyone takes credit—that doesn’t really matter,” says designer Diane von Furstenberg, a colleague of Tory’s. “What I find bizarre and nasty, and can’t possibly finish well for him, is that he is… hurting [her business] by sabotaging it, by copying it. I don’t understand.”

“The person who has been at every single appointment over the years is Tory,” says *Vogue’*s Anna Wintour. “Tory is the one who has always talked to us about her aspirations, and her ideas for growth, how she saw the brand, asked advice on people she might want to bring in—it’s always been, as far as we’re concerned, 100 percent Tory’s business, and we’ve never had anything to do with Chris.”